Indian Masala Tea

Anyone make this kind of tea? I enjoy it, especially at the end of the day. It would be even better with a good loose leaf black tea like an Assam. I've only tried it with Lipton tea bags so far as my tea habit costs money and I'm not a big black tea fan otherwise. Make sure you have a decent sized strainer on hand and a fairly large pot. This is my best friend's mother making a very basic ginger tea:

I prefer to add a cinnamon stick and some cardamom with the fresh ginger. Add whole milk or cream and LOTS of sugar. I just started making it myself. Nothing is more soothing before bed after a party and/or a large meal... almost like a spicy "hot cinnamon".

Never tried it without the sugar. I'm normally not a sugar in my tea guy either, but the Indians take their tea with a lot of sugar and milk (an English influence I'm sure) so that's the way it was always served to me. I'm sure it would be good without sugar too. It's very spicy!

I've had it in Indian restaurants where it is SUPER spicy, and I definetly wouldn't want to go sugarless with that stuff. They can go really heavy on the cardamom and anise seed sometimes. The simple tea posted in the link shouldn't be bad without sugar though. Add a cinnamon stick if you have one laying around to make it a little more interesting.

I've tried a ton of different masala tea mixtures and my favorites have a strong cardamom flavor. I never use sugar as love the flavor of the spices. When out and having at restaurants, they only serve it with milk/cream in so I drink it that way when out. Get me at home making my own, I skip the filler and just go straight for tea and spices. YUM! You can go for a bit lower quality black tea for it since the spices will make up for flavor lacking in the tea itself.

You should be able to get loose Indian black tea at any Indian grocery store. As for masala, you have to make your own mix--the prepackaged stuff isn't ever as good. No anise is used. It's fennel seed.

I'd had the day from H. E. Double Toothpicks and decided to try it. I julienned 1 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, added a teaspoon of fennel seed (thanks, jayinhk!) brought the 2 cups of water to a boil, added 1 Tbs of Red Label black tea, simmered 2 minutes, added a small glug of half and half and simmered 30 sec more. Dave thought 3 Tbs of sugar was fine but I like 2 1/2 better, I think the spices come forward more that way.

About the nutmeg, how would you add that, as a powder? And when would you put it in? I'm thinking if you boiled it, it might get too strong. Were you thinking of sprinkling it on the top, eggnog style?

Your recipe looks great except for no proportions (wink wink nudge nudge ) and the cardamom. I love the taste but it's really expensive here.

I did find a locally available chai-blend tea and they added coriander! Have you heard of that, is it something that's commonly used in chai?

Mom has whole nutmegs she brought back from India--I throw them into my trusty mortar and pestle when I need some. I of course have the powdered McCormick kind in the kitchen cabinet and would use it in a pinch.

As for proportions, that's entirely up to taste.

Mom buys big bags of cardamom from India and Dubai too. No idea how much she pays for it: I just pinch as much as I need.

Coriander is not something I'd put in tea, but I bet someone somewhere does it--if they put it in beer (Hoegaarden for example), why not tea, right? I'll ask mom for her two cents on the blend and whether coriander is a good choice.

FlyedPiper wrote:Never tried it without the sugar. I'm normally not a sugar in my tea guy either, but the Indians take their tea with a lot of sugar and milk (an English influence I'm sure) so that's the way it was always served to me. I'm sure it would be good without sugar too. It's very spicy!

Given the levels of sugar in Indian desserts and prevalence of milk in the cuisines of some regions, I doubt the English can be blamed for this.